Hinduism – Questions & Answers – An introduction…

Hinduism encourages questioning.  It is not a religion propagated by one Messiah through one source book, where both are considered beyond any questioning by ardent believers.

In the multifarious schools and sects of Hinduism, the divine knowledge and spiritual wisdom are transmitted from Guru (Master) to Sishya (disciples) through verbal interactions. The student is encouraged to ask questions to clarify his doubts.  The more the disciple is probing, the more he is considered earnest in learning and the more the Guru becomes happier to teach.

Right from Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita and other Bhashyas (explanatory scriptures elaborating on original scriptures), the scriptures contain questions and answers — disciples ask questions and the answers are elaborated by the masters.

From time immemorial, interestingly, questions and doubts on spirituality almost remain the same or similar and many answers too remain similar, modified only by the specific school’s thought flow and the Guru’s style of response..

In the olden days, where there was a conflict between two schools of philosophies and when one school tried to establish its supremacy over the other school, debates between scholars and acharyas were arranged. The debates involved posing questions from one side and the other side should give fitting and convincing answers quoting the appropriate passages from scriptures as a supporting authority.

In this website, we have specifically accommodated lots of Q&As as per the time tested practice of Hinduism to facilitate deeper understanding. We have also grouped the Q&As in line with the groups in the Main Menu (Q&A on Hinduism Facets, Q&A on scriptures & philosophies etc).  There are many questions for which answers have been based on teachings of spiritual masters. Many of the answers here have in fact been the ones given by this Author earlier in the website Quora.com